Ranil the born loser

H. L. D. Mahindapala

POLITICS: The stark contrast between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Leader of the Opposition, is that Mahinda attracts people and forces right across the political spectrum whereas Ranil repels even his own allies.

Put another way, Ranil's capacity to drive people away from him is as great as Mahinda's capacity to bring them into his fold.

Ranil is an extraordinary phenomenon even among born losers. His record shows that he has no past nor future. But yet he hangs on. Why? For whose benefit? His presence in politics has not helped the nation, or his party.

In fact, his presence in politics has not been beneficial to him either. He has been kicked out so many times by the people, by his rivals, and his loyalists that it boggles the mind as to why he bothers to pose as the leader of the United National Party.

Coincidentally, during his stewardship, the UNP has neither been united nor national. What is worse it has not even been party with ideological appeal and coherence to win votes or to retain power when the chance came.

Under the leadership of giants like the Senanayakes, Jayewardene and Premadasa, the UNP stood tall like its symbol: the elephant. Under the leadership of Ranil one has to look for it with a Hubble telescope to see in what part of outer space it is orbiting.

In any democracy a loser like him would have resigned a long time ago and gone home. But not Ranil. He hangs on hoping that he will capture power sooner than later. He and his Secretary, Attanayake (fast acquiring the name of Nattanayake) have been promising to grab power every coming month.

They were supposed to have been in power last December. But it is Ranil who had to go to Mahinda to save his grip on to the last remaining threads of power within his own party.

He signed the MoU with Mahinda not to save the country or his party but to save himself from extinction. The jumbos in the UNP are a dying species and they know that their future depends on deserting their leader - the Jonah of Sri Lankan politics.

They have watched him making big, bold moves only to end up with egg on his face. He has a penchant for cutting a pathetic figure each time he makes a major move. Consider what happened to him when he was Prime Minister for two brief spells.

The first time he occupied 'Temple Trees' - that also because Sirisena Cooray refused to be the Prime Minister and handed over the plum job on a platter to him - Gamini Dissanayake staged a palace coup and threw him out.

Gamini showed him the numbers he has and forced Ranil out of office. Gamini was the first to prove that Ranil was a wobbly wonder with no backing from his own party.

Second time, when he was junketing abroad, posing with world leaders without tending his own backyard, President Chandrika Kumaratunga staged her coup leaving Ranil to twiddle his thumbs at the White House lawn.

John Amaratunga and other loyalists put their 'catchers' out on the road from Katunayake to Cambridge Place to impress that the people were behind Ranil.

As usual, Ranil misread the situation because Chandrika playing the nationalist card to undercut him.

Ranil was shown as the weakling who was selling the nation to Prabhakaran. This is the card that was played over and over against Ranil - and invariably it worked.

He is never likely to learn that he has to live up to the heroic image of his forefathers, defending his people, rather than being a cheap political merchant selling the nation.

Playing this card - not that she's any better - she grabbed all his key ministries leaving Ranil to live in his dream world of returning to power in some unspecified day in an unspecified year in the 21st century.

Finally, when he went to the presidential polls he was hoping that his mate in the Vanni would reciprocate him with votes for giving all what he wanted in the Ceasefire Agreement.

His batman, Bradman Weerakoon too went out of his way by showering Prabhakaran with 'confidence-building measures', meaning giving all what he wanted to consolidate his position in the Vanni and in the eyes of the international community.

But when the crunch time came Prabhakaran refused to reciprocate with his gifts of votes which Ranil needed to win the presidency.

At the end of the presidential race Ranil had nothing to offer his party except promises to capture power next month - and never this month. It was unattainable carrot dangled to keep the followers in line. But soon they tired of the false promises of the false prophet.

Party loyalists saw that their future was going to be as bleak as their failed leader. Even his closest loyalist like Milinda Moragoda found - a bit late though - that embracing Ranil was like going to bed with a porcupine.

Now he is left with the jetsam and flotsam of the UNP. S. B. Dissanayake is right, for once, when he says that the "cream of the UNP has left".

Incidentally, this is not the first time that his men have left him. This is the third time. First lot was when Stanley Kalpage, Sarath Amunugama and them left. Then Mahinda Samarasinghe and Keheliya Rambukwella left. And now Karu Jayasuriya, G. L. Peiris, Milinda including 17 others have left.

Ranil failed even in his latest move to reform his party. With such a dismal record how can he hope to reform the country? His claim to fame is the much-vaunted Ceasefire Agreement which came, according to him, with an 'international safety net'.

It is now well-known that the 'international safety net' was never there to save the CFA nor him. Ranil became a victim of his own myths.

So when the cream has gone what is left? Ranil's desperate move was to team up with the other desperado, Chandrika.

He had a secret MoU with Chandrika on the eve of the presidential election. In the end he was forced to go for an MoU with his opponent whom he planned to defeat with covert and the overt support of Chandrika.

Both betrayed their forefathers by selling the nation to Prabhakaran. Both are driven by Western ideologies. Both kow-tow to foreign leaders. They also kow-tow to their idol in the Vanni.

Both were keen on handing over power to the anti-national fascist of the Vanni. Both hope to team up against Mahinda Rajapaksa. Both are hoping to come back. Both are two peas from the same rotten pod.

Both are also failures. They have nothing constructive to offer the nation or the people. The best service they could render is to comfort each other and leave the nation alone.

Chandrika is now complaining that she can't even find someone to spoon the sugar in her tea. Poor thing!

Since Ranil has nothing else to do now it would be better for the future of the nation if both could keep each other company, comforting each other with the yarns that only they can spin.

Keeping them out of mischief is the task of the nation and Ranil would be rendering the greatest service to the nation if he could take some sugar, tea and a spoon and hop over to Horagolla - the traditional home of the dying Bandaranaike clan.